THE A FUND IS A BUSINESS AND JOB GENERATOR that was voted on and approved by Corpus Christi voters in 2002. The sole purpose of the fund is to help keep our city competitive in attracting and retaining businesses and jobs. The citizens of Corpus Christi are helping our city grow by dedicating 1/8 of a cent of sales tax collected toward economic development and job growth. An estimated $6 million in revenue are collected in the fund each year. HERE IS THE IMPACT.

AFFORDABLE HOUSING

The Type A Fund Board is responsible for managing the use of the funds. Initially, the Board conducted several public meetings in order to receive public input from citizens as to the type of affordable housing that may be needed in the community. A decision was made and approved by the Board to use the funds for individually owned single-family affordable housing.

Since the inception of the “Affordable Housing Fund” several programs have been funded to ensure there is affordable housing throughout the City for income eligible households. Projects funded have included homebuyer assistance, new construction, land acquisition, and infrastructure.

Since 2002, a majority of the funds have been awarded to projects that created new housing resulting in the expansion of the affordable housing stock. Awards to the Corpus Christi Community Development Corporation, Nueces County Community Action Agency, Extreme Homes, Vanguard Hall, Coastal Bend Council for Independent Living, and the Model Block Program were made that resulted in the construction of new affordable housing units that expanded the affordable housing stock.

Homebuyer Assistance Program

The Purpose of this program is to expand affordable housing opportunities for income eligible homebuyers by providing down payment assistance to purchase an existing inventory home, or a new construction home in Corpus Christi.

The Board has funded the Homebuyer Assistance Program over the years a total of $1,150,000, which has allowed income eligible families to purchase a home in Corpus Christi. The Homebuyer Assistance Program provides the homebuyer with $10,000 in the form of a deferred forgivable loan at zero percent interest, amortized for a 5-year period and forgiven at $2,000 per year. Of the $10,000, assistance in the form of 3.5% of the purchase price could be utilized for down payment assistance. The balance of the $10,000, less the 3.5%, will be used to buy the down the purchase price of the home.

The average purchase price of a home purchased through the Homebuyer Assistance Program is $96,450.

Summary
In summary there are many benefits for the on-going support and funding for affordable housing. Affordable housing helps in maintaining and expanding the property tax base. This is beneficial to many entities such as the City, County, School Districts, Colleges, and Hospitals. Funding of affordable housing is vitally important because it helps businesses and creates hundreds of local jobs. The ripple effect created by the construction of new housing is enormous for those that work in the housing industry such as builders, subcontractors, realtors, lenders, title companies and the various other supporting jobs created that are related to housing.

If the City of Corpus Christi’s vision is to be a community that is accessible to everyone that wants to live here, then affordable housing must be part of that vision. Affordable housing is important because it affects the ordinary family’s ability to buy food; purchase their medication; to access healthcare; and provide an education for their children. These are the hard core decisions that have to be made every day by some of our citizens, when in reality they should not have to decide between paying for either housing, food, or medication.